


Involved with Past and Future

by blancwene



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ficlet, Gen, Outbound Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-13
Updated: 2010-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 23:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/692824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blancwene/pseuds/blancwene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One path Lorana Jinzler didn't take.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Involved with Past and Future

“Wait,” Lorana says, turning to face C’baoth in confusion. “I haven’t been assigned to Outbound Flight.”

“You don’t need to be,” C’baoth replies. “I’ve been granted absolute authority from the Jedi Council. Besides, you’re not ready yet, and there’s still much--”

“No.”

And despite her Master’s cajoling and browbeating and imperious commands, for once in her life she holds firm. Her answer remains the same: no. She finishes her tour, makes her polite farewells, then promptly leaves Yaga Minor for the Jedi Temple.

Eight years later, during the Siege of Saleucami, her mind keeps circling back to Outbound Flight. Did they ever make it? Is her Master still grasping for power and supremacy from all quarters, at any price?

She imagines the Dreadnaughts slowly detaching from the core, one by one, as families colonize the strange worlds of the Unknown Regions.

She jumps forward in time, and imagines the Jedi pushing through the hyperspace disturbance at the edge of the galaxy, into new worlds and suns and infinite novelty.

But far more often, she sees something else: _Outbound Flight_ floating through space, a blackened wreck. Completely, unbearably silent. Whether it’s a vision of the future, a glimpse of the past, or a mere flight of whimsy remains unclear.

The silence haunts her--the eerie, stagnant quiet of the dead.

Someone coughs behind her, and she spins around to find one of the clone troopers standing at attention. “We’ve begun to construct the trench around the droid positions, General Jinzler.”

She nods. “Thank you, Captain. I’ll be there.”

She clears her mind of the past and possibilities, and heads out towards the trench. But even in the heat and clamor of battle, that lifeless silence waits for her--patiently, inevitably. As though she’s merely postponed it.

But not forever.

 

***

 

_What might have been is an abstraction_   
_Remaining a perpetual possibility_   
_Only in a world of speculation._   
_What might have been and what has been_   
_Point to one end, which is always present._   
_Footfalls echo in the memory_   
_Down the passage which we did not take_   
_Towards the door we never opened_   
_Into the rose-garden. My words echo_   
_Thus, in your mind._

\--”Burnt Norton,” T.S. Eliot

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> After finishing _Outbound Flight_ , I really wanted to read an AU where Lorana survived. (Preferably going on to train Evlyn Tabory and the Force-sensitives, and creating an Empire of the Hand's version of the Imperial Knights.) Alas, that story does not exist. So here, have a short AU ficlet instead.


End file.
